A Rajya Sabha panel on June 10 suggested that sex education was unnecessary in schools as human instincts such as hunger, fear, greed and sex were inborn and there was no need to “stimulate” them out of turn. Rather, the need was to groom schoolchildren on how to control the instincts and teach them the importance of restraint. “Basic human instincts like food, fear, greed, coitus etc need not be taught; rather, control of these instincts should be the subject of education,” the report submitted by the Rajya Sabha committee on petitions said.

“But the present academic system incites stimulation of instincts, which is detrimental to the society. To focus Indian education on ‘instinct control’ should be an important objective, and for that the dignity of restraint has to be well entrenched in the education.”

The committee gave its recommendations on a petition seeking a national debate to evolve a consensus on whether sex studies should be introduced in CBSE-affiliated schools from Class VI. Some other recommendations made by the panel are: a) Schoolchildren should be given the “message” that sex before marriage is immoral, unethical and unhealthy; b) Chapters on “Physical and mental development in adolescents”, HIV/AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases should be removed from the school curriculum and included in biology textbooks at the Plus Two stage; and c) The curriculum should include appropriate material on the lives and teachings of saints, spiritual leaders, freedom fighters and national heroes “to re-inculcate national ideals and values” in children.